Winning
by Foxy'sGirl
Summary: Everything has always been a competition to Astrid, but a race with Hiccup helps her to start realizing that winning isn't everything.  A response to How To Train Your Dragon losing at the Academy Awards...rants are welcome.


**So this goes out to my favorite movie of all time, that should have won two Oscars tonight and went home with zero. Read and Review! And I would totally love for people to rant about how dumb it is that How to Train your dragon got beaten out by Toy Story three, if you want to review and rant about that, it would make me endlessly happy!**

**So I'm seriously fine with it if you just want to skip this part and go onto the ranting…just kidding, at least read it first!**

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"You know, not everything is a competition!" Hiccup shouts at Astrid as they hover above Berk. It looks so easy for him, coasting side to side on his fancy Night Fury. Her Nadder, though she really does adore Starkad, is bouncy, and the wind rushing back and forth in time with the beating of the bright blue dragon's wings makes it almost impossible to hear Hiccup.

"That's what losers say!" Almost impossible. Nothing is ever loud enough to drown out Hiccup being ridiculous.

Of course it's a competition. Of course _everything_ is a competition. For Astrid's entire life, she's known that no matter how much she tolerated or even befriended her peers, it's always still been a competition. There has always been this invisible and overarching idea that if she didn't win over them, then she'd be second rate. Losing is not an option, instead a dreadful possibility. Losers die, and she's a survivor. And if losing could ruin her, then winning can surely save her.

Hiccup says something in response to her loser comment, but she ignores it instead turning and bolting off into the distance, assuming that he'll either follow or she'll win by default. That's still winning. It just means that he is a wuss who's afraid to challenge her, and that affirms that she's the champion.

Astrid loves the feeling of flying, and assumes that it must be far better than the rush of spilling blood. A small part of her is disappointed that she trained for years and years and years and none of it paid off for anything. She's been trying to convince her father to let her come along the next time they plunder one of the southern villages, that way she can at least make her axe useful, rather than leave it to collect dust in a corner like many of the other villagers.

But really, most of her is just glad that she gets to fly, and she gets to feel connected to this great beast on a deeper level. Sure, her relationship with Starkad is nowhere near as deep and potent as the one Hiccup shares with Toothless, but she hopes she'll get there in time. Of course, there is the whole fact that her dragon can't fly past a body of water without flexing her wings and preening, but maybe that'll bring the two girls closer. It could be possible that the dragon would impart some care for vanity into her young rider. Possible, but highly unlikely.

For a while, Astrid is sure that she's won this race just because Hiccup is too chicken to take her on, but when she glances back over her shoulder to determine whether it's time to go find him and gloat, she spots a small black speck soaring far over her. She sees it shoot across a gap in between two thick fluffy clouds and disappear into the mist of a third.

That coward! He won't even fly up next to her, instead taking some sly, intelligent, round-about way. She demands a rematch, this is not a fair race, not at all. Who knows how different the aerial terrain is up at the higher altitude? He could be flying in favorable winds while she's down here, seemingly shoving all of the air in the sky with her face and impossibly tangled hair.

Of course, the ease with which he pulls ahead of her has absolutely nothing to do with the fact he's riding a Night Fury, the fastest dragon currently known to Vikings. The only reason that he's winning is because he's a filthy cheater, and that means that she's winning anyway, because cheaters get murdered in angry revenge plots! It's practically a guarantee.

Astrid urges Starkad faster, leaning down low between the dragon's rows of spikes in an attempt to get rid of some of the air resistance and get her surely vibrantly ruby face away from the irritating wind. The Nadder picks up the pace, and just as Astrid thinks she must be far ahead of wherever Toothless ended up, the sleek black competition drops from the cloud cover directly in front of her. The first thing that she wants to do is tell Starkad to do is bite the woolen and metal flap that's flicking expertly back and forth as Hiccup's fake leg churns in the stirrup, battling the headwind. But then a small flash of Hiccup, bruised and broken with half of a mangled leg still attached, flashes through her mind and she's overwhelmed with guilt for even thinking about making them crash.

She's not going to cheat, she's going to win. Fairly. Because she always has been and always will be the best. Just because he rode a dragon first doesn't make him some sort of dragon racing god!

Hiccup doesn't even seem to realize that the competition is directly behind him, working out a strategy to overtake his position, instead he allows Toothless to throw in a few stomach dropping spins while his long, pink tongue blows in the breeze. For such a smart animal, the dragon really is easily amused.

Just as Astrid begins dropping in altitude Toothless slows down, performing some dangerously pivotal twisting maneuver and Hiccup locks eyes with her for a minute. The first thing that she notices is the way that she can see the green ring of his iris even from such a distance, and the second thing she notices is the absurdly competitive look in those eyes. Oh, he wants to win.

Astrid tries to give him a similarly stony look, but of course he pulls away too soon, soaring ahead of her on his unbelievably quick dragon and leaving Starkad in the dust. She groans, pinning herself impossibly closer to the dragon's neck and squeezing the beast with her heels, hoping to push her faster.

But alas, the race is lost, even Astrid is forced to relent in her quest to catch up when the Night fury lands on a cliff very near to the edge of the village. Well that's one way to end a race, give up and land whenever you get scared that you're going to lose.

Astrid sighs, only to her own benefit as the sound is immediately lost to the breeze, because her bravado sounds stupid even in her own head. He has the faster dragon, that definitely doesn't make him the better rider and she will have to somehow stage a rematch when they're both on Gronkles or something, because then the mounts would be unfamiliar to both of them and the situation would be the epitome of fair.

She wants to fly past, just fly past and later act like he gave up and lost. If only she were a good enough liar to pull that off, also if she doesn't stop, it will look like she's running away from him, which definitely is not the case and anyone who thinks that is incredibly wrong.

When she flies by the cliff, she takes her only viable option and lightly touches down beside where he is gingerly standing, leaning a little too heavily against Toothless's side. When he's flying, he always looks oddly graceful, and sometimes she almost forgets about the metal leg that still bothers him when he's on his feet for too long. He's doing really great, considering that he only woke up a month ago, but she's already eager for it to heal and be as normal as possible. Of course, he's not suddenly going to be the average Viking, he is Hiccup after all, but it makes her feel a little too invested in him when he makes that crinkled face because his stump is sitting inside the cradle of his prosthetic just wrong.

Hiccup has always been the loser, actually his infamy had gotten to the point that whenever someone did something really pathetic and clumsy, everyone else would accuse them of "pulling a Hiccup." That was just how things were, Hiccup was the absolute bottom and she was the top, and there was a complicated hierarchy in between them, always shifting and bending to whoever had grown more or become skillful with an additional weapon, but the ends of the food chain never changed. He was awful and she was awesome.

And now he's beating her at the game that he didn't even want to play, and on top of that, she's almost _worried_ about him. How far she's fallen.

Now, she just feels stupid for challenging the Night Fury. Toothless is happily curled in the grass slobbering over some half-digested fish that he must have just barfed up for a snack, while her Nadder is heaving and wheezing slightly, the fast flight too much for her. Astrid swings herself off of her perch on Starkad's shoulders, figuring that a little less weight might make it easier for her to catch her breath.

Hiccup beams at her, obviously very pleased with himself, and Astrid scowls.

"What are you so smug about? Your dragon did all of the work." She crosses her arms, standing with a hip cocked, looking positively murderous. Hiccup's smile doesn't really fade all too much, and she wonders when he stopped being afraid of her. The thought makes her glare harder and he pales a little.

There. That's a better reaction.

"You're just being a sore loser." He accuses, pointing at her while stealthily shifting to lean even more of his weight against his dragon, who looks at him in concern. Maybe her glare had nothing to do with him paling. She suddenly feels some foreign emotion that makes her want to tend to his wounds and make sure that he's alright rushing through her. His dad asks her to keep an eye on him, make sure that he didn't kill himself by moving too fast in his recovery, and she nearly forces him—okay, she really forces him—to race her? Great job there Astrid!

"I'm not a loser!" It comes out too defensive, and she hates herself for it. It only makes her sound like a sore loser when she yells it like that!

"No, you're not a loser, you just lost." He says and she rolls her eyes.

"Well, you don't make sense!" It's a weak argument, and she knows it. What she doesn't know is why she's trying to argue with him. It has no point, because he always manages to say something smarter than she could ever come up with and she ends up yelling something about how he's awful at fighting. The problem with that defense is that Hiccup couldn't care less about his fighting ability, so of course this ends the argument and he walks away, acting all triumphantly humble.

"Can you just calm down? You win at everything else, what's the big deal if Toothless is faster than your dragon?" Astrid doesn't really think her answer through, it's one of those awful moments where she blurts out exactly what she doesn't want to say.

"Because I win at everything else! I can't just start losing to _you_ all of a sudden." Hiccup's face falls, and it's satisfying for all of two seconds, until she realizes that when he looks so crushed, she can't find it within herself to be happy. "You know what I mean." That doesn't help, and his face falls further, he can't even seem to find it in himself to make eye contact with her anymore.

"You mean that I'm pathetic? Because then, yes, I know what you mean." He mumbles, but it happens at one of those unfortunate times when even the bugs shut up and she hears every word loud and clear.

"That's not what I mean." She steps across the few feet between them and slugs him in the arm, "And that's for beating me." He looks at her expectantly, and it throws her off. She steps away slowly, like he's poised to attack.

"What about everything else?" That's when it hits her. She's becoming predictable. Now the boy is expecting a kiss every time she hits him. Sure, she had gone over there with the intentions of giving him a kiss on his cheek, and she has enjoyed the other times when her punch has been followed by a quick peck, but it suddenly becomes clear that she can't be throwing her lips around for just anything. Everyone will think that she's gone _soft_.

"I don't know. What about it?" He visibly deflates, and she does her best not to cringe. Why in the name of Thor's beard do his emotions affect her this way. The other day she smiled just because he did! There is definitely something funny going on here, and she does not like it. Not one bit. But she can't leave him with that frown on his face, so she turns back to face him after swinging up onto her somewhat refreshed dragon. "We should have a rematch sometime. Best two out of three?"

"You wish. I'm going to quit while I'm ahead." He says, and even though he's being a belligerent little twit, at least in her opinion, she's oddly happy that at least he's smiling now.

"Fine then. I'll just tell everyone that you were too chicken."

"And I'll tell everyone that you lost." Good point. That's not exactly a rumor she wants floating around.

"No, we're both going to be silent." She amends, and he nods, smiling cheekily, like that is what he was planning all along.

"Fine then." They stare each other down, both wondering what they're doing here. The race is over, and Hiccup needs a nap, why are they hesitating here, staring at each other?

"Go home. You're supposed to be healing still." She tells him brusquely, before clicking to her dragon and soaring into the breeze. As much as she doesn't necessarily want to, she can't help glancing back over her shoulder at the gimping boy, carefully mounting his dragon for the trip home.

Even though he's kind of a loser, Hiccup is alright. Maybe winning isn't everything.

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**So, there it is, my little oneshot to soothe my post oscar blues. At least James Franco joked about the movie…that's something.**

**So tell me what you think! And please rant about the Academy Awards if you're feeling the same ire that I am. I love it when people are angry about the same things that I am!**


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